Darn!---What are we doing? Is the purpose of having a forum like this to vent and second guess the professionals that are running our athletic programs? I don't know what the professional credentials are of the posters that are second guessing the decisions of the athletic director, whose liveliehood, and professional reputation, depends on his own decisions. I suspect, though,that they are based on emotion, personal bias, and the sense of entitlement that seems to run through the entire sports world of fans, today, as a result of buying a ticket to a game, or making a contribution to an athletic program. Wofford is not SC, Clemson, Ga., Duke, Mich. Fla, Texas, or any other program whose name you want to bring up that counts its athletic revenues in the $75 million plus category. Hell, its not even GSU, or App State.
When this web site was started, I was very excited that we had a forum wherein we could discuss Wofford Athletics, the performance on the field, the potential for upcoming seasons, discussion of the games, and all the things related to that. I was also quite proud of the fact that the discussions seemed to be on a higher plane than some of our counterparts; namely GSU and App State. Have many of you ever seen the vitirolic dialogue prevalent on those two sites? As recently as two years ago, the most opinonated of the posters on the App State site were vehemently calling for Jerry Moore to be fired, while simultaneously calling for the AD to be fired for not firing Jerry. GSU---what can I say? Do any of us want to fall into that kind of quagmire? I am personally appalled that our own web site has been subjected to the same kind of second guessing as those. If any of us are thankful to the experience that we had at Wofford, then we should realize that success on the athletic field was not paramount to that experience. In case anyone cares about where I am coming from, I attended Wofford on a full football scholarship, and am probably one of those that would not have graduated from college without that benefit. We competed well when I was there, and I enjoyed it. I know only enough to know that, today,I am proficient in my field of endeavor, and that I am not endowed with enough knowledge and experience to know how to make judgements on someone elses profession, unless I have been enabled by my years of experience as a fan. All those that would like to have their every decision as a businessman, lawyer, teacher, minister, military leader, etc, etc please let me know, and send me your itinerary for the next year so that we can follow your progress. As a final comment, we all know that this is not a Wofford sponsored site; however, despite whatever characterization you want to give it, it is viewed by the public at large, prospective students and parents, and judgements are rendered---In the words of that famous philosopher, Forest Gump, "thats all I have to say about that"

Not counting spammers, we have around 245-250 registered users. Not bad. Breed could tell us about our traffic-- my bet is that it is not as extensive as one might think-- exposure wise.

Wofford gave me a lot too; I am thankful for that. it gave the ability to ask questions of myself and of the world around me. Before this current hire, when's the last time we hired a coach for the big three sports-- was Traylor the last? A lot has changed in that time. Will we be cut throat like some of the institutions you mention? No, of course not.

But I think it is fair to ask questions; I am asked questions in my profession--most of us are. Why not here, now with Wofford? I don't think we should give a pass to a system just out of institutional loyalty.

Why should we give the impression to those who may look to come to Wofford that Wofford produces people who are content whatever happens and that there is no pursuit of excellence by the fans as well as by the athletic staff" To be less than a fan that what we could be seems to be a betrayal of the very athletes we pledge to support.

I am an alumni that played sports in the D-I early years, I am very proud of the affiliation I have with Wofford. I am also passionate and tired of my hard earned money I give to the terrier club being used to fund programs that demonstrate no improvement. I don't expect us to put athletics ahead of academics, but you can't continue to look at us as though we are a D-II or D-III program anymore. Athletics is a primary focus of our college, and we need to select coaches that are going to provide these students opportunities to be not only good students but also competitive athletes as well.

That being said, I disagree totally with fgs44 and the arguement that we can't question the AD or coaching staff's decisions. Are you kidding me????? As an alumni and a contributor to the Terrier Club, I certainly have earned the right to question the decisions if I feel warranted to do so. I love Wofford and don't want our kids to go through the same crap that I did by having a half-**s coach who cared more about his part-time pest control business than he did about us. If we want good, solid D-I athletes then we need coaches that are capable of building successful programs on and off the field.

I guarantee that other academic schools have just as passionate alumni, and they are probably allowed to ask questions of their adminstration. I guess to some that's not the "Wofford Way."

I agree we aren't and should be ASU or GSU fans or their board, but while we are on the accountability subject: I for one am accountable every day on my job - they are called clients who by virtue of their payment for my services have certainly earned the right question to question any part of the services I provide. As contributors and supporters of Wofford, we have some of those same rights. To say we can't or shouldn't question decisions of Wofford's leadership is borderline ridiculous. I would hope however that we would do it fairly, articulately, accurately, and in the spirit of cooperation to making Wofford the best it can be. Someone in the baseball forum mentioned something about demanding excellence. When we or Wofford stops doing that, we are in real trouble.
There is a regular poster on this board that has continually expressed the point that we should not continue to accept the old excuses (money, academics, etc.) for lack of athletic success. I have not until now accepted his point as I have always felt Wofford has built-in limitations and challenges that cannot be avoided and are difficult to overcome. But now, I see that he/she is absolutely right. Maybe one reason we haven't had success in some sports is for that very reason.

BT, DJ, and Ruckus, I don't disagree with anything that you said. My observations have to do with the comments made in a "public" forum that were delivered that were somewhat personal in their descriptive nature. We are all held accountable in our professional lives, but usually not outside of our business and professional peers. However, being fans, I guess, gives us a little more license to second guess the ones that administer the areas that we follow as fans. I suppose that as people that are asked, financially, to provide support to our school, for whatever area of endeavor, we are entitled to be critical. My comment had to do with being public in our discourse, and the perception that is delivered to the viewers that are considering Wofford as perspective student athletes. I don't have a problem, as a contributor to the Terrier Club, to calling RJ and asking him why he made a particular decision, or discussing with other members of the financial support community the direction of the college, either athletically or otherwise. However, I'm not sure that making the kind of emotional, and uninformed comments that I have seen on other fan web sites, is conducive to progress for our us. Perhaps I am a dinosaur in my way of approaching the situation. I do date back to a time when people were less confrontational regarding "fandom". I want as much as anyone for Wofford to be competitive, if not dominant, in athletics at the level we have chosen. The "bottom line" is that in order for us to do that, we need the financial foundation. We can have great administrators, outstanding coaches, etc., but we need the money to make all of that happen. Wofford has a higher level of financial committment from its alumni than any other school in the SoCon; but we still are the smallest group of alumni. That is our challenge, and our bond.

I'll somewhat mirror fgs44's concerns- as alumni, we have a responsibility to maintain civil discourse and logical presentation of arguments in this forum, at least in my opinion.

I guess my biggest concern has been the sometimes heated discussion regarding the choice of our new baseball coach- not exactly debate in several cases. What I don't want to see on this board is any form of character assassination in order to make a point.

I haven't been overly comfortable with the content of the recent baseball threads- I can only hope it cools off a little and becomes more civilized by the time football rolls around.

I agree that the discussion on the baseball forum got a bit out of hand and should not have gone down some of the paths it did, and I accept that I probably had some role in that, however, I believe that the forces that sent that discussion askew were not regular posters.

It doesn't take much to see that a number of the posters on one side of the argument were using accounts created for the sole purpose of participating in that particular forum. That being the case, I think a certain degree of baiting was going on rather than the expression of an individuals ideas. It is my hope that the individuals who made those accounts will continue to post and become regular parts of our community, but I suspect we have heard the last from virtually all of them.